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The stakes could scarcely be higher for
Research in Motion
(ticker: RIMM). After a devastating loss of market share and the stunning collapse of its stock price, the BlackBerry maker needs a big, big win to stay relevant. Will the company's new Z10 model do the trick? At a minimum, it gives reason for hope.

When Z10 goes on sale in March, anyone in the market for a smartphone should consider it as an alternative to Samsung's Galaxy S line and other phones running on Google's Android operating system. It won't pry me from my iPhone 5, but there are many innovations with this phone that can make for a great experience.

BlackBerry Z10

Price: $199 with two-year plan from Verizon and several others. Stats: 5.12" by 2.58" by 0.35". Features: "Burst mode" for several camera images in succession Website:blackberry.com

RIM's black slab of hardware is a rather dull imitation of the iPhone 5. But it will feel comfortably familiar to previous users of the BlackBerry. And the software has some real magic to it.

First and foremost is the Hub, as RIM calls it, a scrolling list of all your incoming and outgoing communications across all your channels of interaction: texting, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, phone calls—all in one place. You can easily look at your entire communications history, or your history with one person, across all channels.

The on-screen keyboard of the Z10 won't please the staunchest BlackBerry purists, who adore the traditional hardware keyboard. But it's slightly roomier than an iPhone, which may help with fat fingers.

More important, the keyboard attempts to predict your next word, and while it takes getting used to, it could ultimately cut down on the actual typing you need to do.

It's not all perfection. The Z10's Maps program is mediocre. And in my tests involving fairly heavy e-mailing, note-taking, and music-playing, the battery ran down by two-thirds in just 4½ hours—not good at all.